Winding and reeling mechanism for motion-picture apparatus.



A; s. HOWELL. WINDING AND-REELINGv MECHA'NISM FOR .MOTION 'PICTURE APPARATUS. APPLICATIONHLED SEPLZI., 1915. v 1,2%35739., Patent-ea 0@t..23,1917,

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WINDING AND REVELING IVIECHANISM FOR MOTION PICTURE APPARATUS'.

APPLICATION FILED sE-PT.21.19|5. v

1,243,?39 I Patented oet. 1917.

2 sHEE'Ts-SHEET 2.

'cierran sTaTns narnia-IT carica.

ALBERT s. HOWELL, or c'I'IIoAcO,v ILLINOIS, Assrcivoa To BELL a HOWELL COMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, .a CORPORATION or ILLINOIS.

WINIJINGAND aaELINc MricIIAiv-isit Foa MOTION-Hernan ai?raaATUs.l

Lacasse.

Specification of Letters latent. Patented (Got. 23, 1917.

Originai application led April 22; 1915, Serial No. 23,020. Divided and this application filed September 27,

' 1915. Serial No. 52,832.

To all whom t may concern.' l I Y Beit known that I, ALBERT S. HOWELL, a

. citizen of the United States, and a resident novice.

of the city of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of lllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Windingand Reeling Mechanism for Motion-Picture Apparatus, of which the following is a speciiication. y

My invention relates to the art of cinematrography and, more particularly, tothe feeding and reeling of the strip or strips of film employed in the motion picture machines of divers types. While my invention is more particularly adapted to a machine for printing the positive film from the negative film, it is also capable of being employed in connection lwith a projecting apparatus for the purpose of rewinding the film, either simultaneously with the projecting ofA another film, or after said ilm has been fed through the machine and it is desired to re.- wind it during the stoppage of the projectinfr mechanism of the apparatus.

)lt is an object of my invention to provide' or adapted to cinematographic machinery already installed and in use; and to provide a reeling mechanism thatis not complicated in its Operation and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.

I prefer to accomplishl the objects of my invention by the means and in the manner hereinafter fully described and as more particularly pointed out in the claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, wherein, Figure 1 is a vertical Iside elevation of a motion picture apparatus, commonly known as a printing machine, showing my invention embodied therein.

Fig. 2 is a-transverse axial section taken l' gular arm 26 is secured to and projects foron line 2-2 of Fig. 1, of a fragmentary Vtightener showing-the same in its two eX- treme positions.

For the purpose of simplifying they illustrating and describing of my invention, I have shown the same asapplied tO a printing machine such as is disclosed in an ap lication for Letters Patent of the United States filed by me April 22, 1915, Serial No. 23,020, whereof my present application is a division.

Iii the drawings, similar reference characters are employed to indicate the lsame parts throughout thevarious views.v

Referring to said drawings, it will be observed the numeral 10 designates a suitable base that is provided withva vvertically disposed standard 11 adapted to support the Operating mechanism of a motion' picture printing apparatus. Standard 11 is preferably hollow and of substantially rectangular cross-section for the purposes hereiny after described. A cylindrical lamp house 12 is mounted upon the rear wall of said standard and provides a suitable mount for an electric motor 13 whereby the mechanism is adapted. to be actuated.r

Mounted upon one of the sidewalls of vthe standard `11 is an irregularly-shaped plate 14 (Fig. 2) on which are secured divers parts of the mechanism'and through which the main drive-shaft 15, which is journaled in said standard, extends. The

outer end'of the shaft 15 adjacent this plate isprovided with a pulley 16 which is driven by a belt 17 connecting the same with the 'pulley 18 on the shaft of the motor 13. Be-

tween the pulley 16 and the bearings of shaft 15 and back of plate -14 the shaft is provided with a gear 19 that meshes with a larger'gear 20, the shaft 21 of which latter is above and has its aXis in substantially vertical alinement with the aXis of shaft 15. Gear 20 meshes with two smaller gears 22 and 23, the shafts-24 and 25 whereof are likewise journaled in the standard 11 and extend through the plate 14 in 4horizontal planes above and below the horizontal plane of the axis-Of shaft 2,1.

A substantially horizontally' disposed anioo l wardly 'r l; l '.negative film and has a grooved drive pulley ,i 31 whichis mounted upon its opposite eX- tended end. A belt 32 passes around pulleys 29y and 31 and connects and drives said 115 pulleysfrom a-smaller grooved pulley 33 before mentioned.` l At or adjacent its upper end the standard 11 is provided with a substantially V-shaped carried by the outer end of shaft 24, herein- 2@ supporting bracket 34- securely bolted there'- to and to the endsof'the arms of which a suitable 'elongated or oval-shaped plate 35 is secured. Bearing bosses are providedin the ends of each of. the respective arms of v bracket 34 through which are disposed stub-l shafts 36 and 37. The latter shaft 37 is preferably non-rotatable and is adapted toavf-v ford an arbor for a spool of sensitized positive film l38, while the formerystubshaft .3o- (36) is preferably rotatable and is ada ted to carry aspool 39 of aroll of negative film 40 that-rotates therewith. Rotatable stubshaft 36 extends laterally beyond its bearings opposite the spool 39 where it is providedwith a fixed grooved pulley 41 driven by `a belt.42 connecting the'same with a pnlley 43 fast on the maip shaft 15 adjacent pulley- 16. to the pulley 41 but in the path thereof are xa@ interposed idlers 44 land 45, the former of which rotates loosely upon the adjacent eX- tended end of the shaft 21 and the latter idler (45) is journaled on a spindle 46 upon j the movable arm' 47 of a suitablebell crank a@ or belt tightener `48. This belttightener is loosely' pivote'd upon the end of shaft 21 and has an elongated arm 48 in the end of which isfa' stub 49 to engage suitable recesses or sockets in the ends of a segmental- :bof-shaped stop-'plate 51. Underordinary coni a? Itions,"in other words, when the apparatus being operated as a printing machine,

that'the-"beltw42'islloose and therefore does 554no't5'd4rve-the, pulley'- 41- on which the negaf-.tivefiillmjisgneeledbut when it is desired to rewriid-.tlie .negative -fiil'm from its lower 'spool' 'after fthe printingoperation has been j ompleteithe arm47 is moved to Aits lower- @Qmost iposition to tighten the belt'A 42 and .fafterv .thefilm has been Unthreaded from the-.usual "feeding sprocket and .other elea ments adjacent the aperture element, the "same is passed over a small. idle roller .52, o5 mounted adjacent'the loweredge portion j entre 'abat m11 or amigar;1.o and has/ a,;bearing in its .outer .end for a ation by asuitable clutch mechanism upon `A This clutch mechanismv preferably comprises a structure such as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings and as fully set forth in .of securing o-ne of the members of a fric- Bel; 42 does not travel direct. lfacing the standard of the machine is f maare@ of plate 35, and secured to the upper spool 39 upon which it will be rewound. This rewinding mechanism may bereadily andconveniently employed to rewind either the negative. film from spool 39 or the positive film' from its spool 38, as all that it is n'ece's-V sary to dois to unthread the 'film from the feeding sprockets, etc., and thread it directly over the roller 52 from its respective lower spool to the rewind spool 39, it, of course, being understood that all of the 'mechanismfor moving the film' past the aperture element is first thrown out of operthelmainshaft '15., so

an application for' Letters Patent of the United States, filed by me February 13, 1915, Serial Number 7,932, for stop and recoil mechanism for motionl ypicture apparatus.' By reference to Fig. 2- of the drawings, it will beseen that shaft 15 is extended a con- 90 siderable-distance beyond its bearings and is provided with a reduced portion that formsa shoulder 53andlhas a splineway 54 insaid reduced portion for the purpose tion. clutch thereto. This clutch member preferably comprises a hollow sleeve 55 that surrounds the Vouter reduced end of shaft 15 l and is lsplined thereto by a key 56 fitting into the splineway above mentioned and isle@ locked to the interior groove of the sleeve by a'pin 57. The inner end of the sleeve,

rovidedwith a cup-shaped head'58 thatplits over the shoulder ofshaft 15 and the eX- tended end ofthe bushing 59 surrounding said shaft in its bearing, and said head is provided with a peripheral set of gear teeth 60. An annular friction ring 61 is pinned or otherwise secured to the outer face of 11o the head 58, the central opening of said ring being adapted. to fit over the inner tubular portionof the sleeve. The pulley 43 before mentioned, is provided on its face adjacent this friction ring 61, with a smooth 11 surface so'as to frictionally engage said ring. A friction ring 62 is mounted on 'and rotatable with the sleeve 55 by means of a transaXial headed pin 63, the head whereof projects into a longitudinal groove 64 upon the outer periphery of said ,sleeve so as to permit its removal longitudinally therefrom. An expansion spring 55 is coiled around the sleeve 55 between its outer end and saidA friction ring 62 and is kept under tension by a cup-shaped cap 66 mounted. upon the outer portion of the sleeve and inclosing said spring. This structure permits the pulleyl and the smaller pulley 43 to rotate normally with the shaft 15, but

when the stop mechanism operated'hy moving a reciprocable bolt 68 into the.path

of the trans verse bolt 67, carried on the head of the sleeve, the rotation of the shaft 15 and its driven elements is" linstantly 4stopped while the pulleys 16 and' 43 are stopped more gradually, vdue .to -the fact that the pulley 16 is frictionally secured to the shaft'l.y The stop-mechanism is provided for the purpose of 'stopping the nlm# actuating shuttleinstantly -and at a predetermined position relative" to 'the film to avoid spoiling quantities of the filmv and also to position the film positivelyrelative-to the aperture and other elements'of the mechnism. I This mechanism however forms vthe subject-matter of and has been more freely described in my copending applicatin'above mentioned and therefore needs no further detailed description herein. l

In the abovedescription and the drawings forn'ling apart thereof, I have disclosed numerous specific devices for carrying outt the .objects of my invention which, of course, may be readily modified or refined for the purpose of adapting the mechanism to divers types of machines, all of which will be obvious to others skilled in the art 0f cinematography. I desire it understood therefore that all such modifications; or reinements are contemplated Within the scope of my invention as 'expressed in the appended claims, andI do not therein limit myself -to any particular type ofapparatus yto which my invention is applicable.

WhatI clalm as new is:-

l. In motion picture apparatus, an arbory for mountlng a spool of lm, an arbor for mounting a take-up spool for receiving the film from said first, mentioned spool, a main drive shaft, a pulley frictionally mounted upon said shaft, mechanism for stoppingthe movement of said shaft, de

- vices operatively' connecting said pulley and first mentioned arbor, and means for disconnecting said devices. 2. In motion picture apparatus, an arbor for mounting' a spool vof film, an arbor for mountingja take-up spool for receiving the film from said 'first mentioned spool, amain drive. shaft,.a, drive pulley frictionally mounted thereon, mechanism for stopping 'the-movement ofl saidshaft, beltandpulley connecting saidfirst" mntOIle-rarbol and pulley, and means for disengaging said .belt from said drivepulley.A i

In motiony picture. apparatus, a

'shaft having'a drive gearconnected there-f with an idle gear and pinion actuated by said drive gear, mechanism for stopping the movement of said drive gear, yan arbor for a. film' spoollsupply, an arbor fora film takeup spooL-'means operatively connecting-Saud take-up arbor and pinion, pulleyson saidl 'I drive shaftand supply spool arbor, a belt connecting said last mentioned pulleys, de-

vices fonthrowing said means out 0f opera I tion, and film spools frictionally mounted upon said arbors. v l,

4. In motion picture apparatus, a drive .shaft having 1a drive gear connected there-` -with, an idle `gear and pinion actuated by said drive gear, mechanism for stopplngthe movement of saiddrive gear, an arbor for a film supply spool, an arbor for a' film `takeup spool, means yoperatively connecting said take-up arbor and pinion, pnlleyson said drive shaft and supply spool arbor,- a belt connecting said last mentioned pulleys, de-

vices engaging the aforesaid .means for throwing said means out of operation, and

lm spools frictionally mounted on said arbors.

5. Inl motion picture apparatus, a drive shaft having a drive gear connected therewith, an idle gear and pinion actuatedv by said drive gear, .mechanism for stopping the ALBERT S. HOWELL. Witnesses:

E. ILLUNDY, Jr., WM. HAROLD EICHELMAN.

. Chicago, county of Cook andl State of Illinois, this 21st day of September, 

